The thread, "Mistreatment of trap help at the grand," has generated a lot of interest. If you received similar treatment as a score keeper, what would you do?
I would of stepped in and got the information so he could be reported and called for someone to eliminate the abuse and or disqualify the abuser ... Then I would of told him how he was my HERO for picking on a kid, from then on whatever happened would of been up to him ... WPT ... (YAC) ...
It seems like the discussion has turned to the fact this delegate wouldn't say such things. So now posters are calling for evidence or the other side of the story.
It's not just verbal abuse of trap help... I see any number of weekly incidents where safety issues present themselves and veteran shooters who know better and witness these issues are reticent to say anything.
Poor gun handling on the line, folks carrying closed action guns, folks loading two or more shells for single events, no eye or hearing protection on a fellow shooter.
We can all have a momentary lapse and make errors, but it's incumbent upon each of us to correct these situations (in a gentlemanly manner) whenever possible... the life you may save might just be your own!
1 Peter 3:15 (Non-inspired and slightly amplified version )
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for...why you enjoy trapshooting. But do this with gentleness and respect..."
Whether it actually happened or not is one thing but I have seen it many times and it is unacceptable. If I were a trap person and it happened I would refuse to continue until he or she was removed
I don’t know what happened, was not there..so no comment on that.
But to topic; one upside of the sport is that we can provide a bit of employment to young people and expose them to the shooting sports. At the PITA Grand we always hire local high school sports teams to help them earn money for their sport. Yes they should be trained a bit, but keep in mind these kids are likely scared to death and will make mistakes. I’ve had to stop a squad at shoots more than once and help the kid sort things out. And I don’t mind one bit. We should always help them with a kind word and a smile. If there is a serious problem, stop and inform shoot management. None of us should have a cross word for these kids for any reason ever. And yes we all should step in if we see it. At the very least remove the kid and take them to management. Let management deal with the shooter. If you stop the squad, management will have to deal with it.
Fortunately I’ve never seen a shooter give a kid a hard time.
this all could have been prevented with proper management. A couple hours with each bank supervisor to go over "customer service" and flowcharting the few different scenarios that might occur during the shoot. then the staff to handle those few situations. = Problem Solving 101
I used to help with registered shoots at a club in central Florida (closed for about 12 years now) and we had a fellow that regularly rubbed almost everyone the wrong way, but was a club member. I had a puller who wasn't really a kid (about 19 or so) who worked as an end loader operator during the week and pulled and scored shoots for us. The puller came into the clubhouse and told me the guy had confronted him about something pretty insignificant and he wasn't going to pull for him, got a soda and sat down in the air conditioning. Directly the shooter finds me and says the puller quit with his squad on the line and wanted to know what I was going to do about it. I asked him about the confrontation and he admitted to it and I reminded him the the young man was basically working weekends for a very little bit of pocket money, but mostly as a favor to me and the shooters. I told him that I thought he might get the puller back if he went and apologized, but I wouldn't make any guarantees. After several minutes of discussion between the shooter and his squad the puller got quite an apology and the event continued. I wish I could say the incident cured the shooter but it diidn't, only around this particular puller.
When the Old Phoenix Club was still in operation and hosting the Spring Grand one year I was told by a bunch of shooters and eventually the score keeper that an individual "jumped his case big time" for no obviouslreason ... I gathered the information and approached the shooter and asked if I could have a few word with him ... We both walked off and talked about what happened and this shooter admitted that he was having a bad day, I explained that his conduct would not be tolerated and that his scores for that day were being disqualified and if there was any more such conduct he would be asked to and made to leave the shoot, no questions asked ...
The following day this shooter approached me and said he was sorry for the way he conducted himself in that particular incident, I told him that he didn't go off on or get in my face but he might want to go and tell the puller what he just said to me because thats who took the brunt of his actions ... I told him that I would have a lot more respect for him as a man if in fact he told the score keeper he was sorry ... He never did say anything to me but later that day the puller came over and told me that the shooter who read him the riot act came and said he was sorry and asked that he would please forgive him for acting like he did when he took his bad day out on him ... Some how I just felt better about it once it was over and done with ... WPT ... (YAC) ...
Perhaps the puller/scorekeepers should be made aware that they do not have to put up with abuse and they can walk off the field with impunity. Once the shooters realize that they will get thier sh!t together and police each other.
Bill--I'd say you handled that incident quite well.
As stated before, we don't have both sides although i'm not sure why the OP of the other thread would make such accusations as a Delegate himself on a public forum if they were not true. He did sign his name as well which in my eyes does give some validity to his post. Its amazing the people that just insist certain people couldn't possibly act that way. Remember John Wayne Gacy was a clown that worked childrens birthday parties and such. He was also kidknapping them,sexually abusing them and then burying them under his house all while his neighbors insisted how great of a guy he was. Just say'n....................
In all my years of shooting, I can honestly say I've never seen a shooter yell at a puller. I have however seen a lot pullers/scorers really screw up things, but no one lost it and yelled or screamed. It's usually management's fault for not training the kids correctly or weeding out the bums.
Once in my younger (& maybe hot headed) years we were training some new kids to set birds, small club-everybody knew we were training, 1 guy got upset because he got a few no-birds when he called too soon, I tried to calm him down & was told that he ate little guys like me (he was big) for lunch, I told him maybe so but that I was going to get one heck of a sandwich out of the deal. Had several others back me up, he HRUMMPHED but did calm down, I think maybe he just wanted to play the big sh-t. We were friends after things cooled off. Ross Puls
Im scoring and loading at the Grand currently, and if someone exploded on my for a simple miscommunication, or a subconscious error, i wouldnt pay it too much mind to it because they'd be making a fool of themselves. id do better to not displease anyone else, but id have the perpetrator pulled out of shooting, and id have my supervisor take it from there.
Slammin'Salmon--Do you shoot Trap too or just temp help? What is your overall opinion of Trap shooters in general? I mean are they typically polite and helpful or rude or???????? Simply curious as a shooter myself. I like to think as a whole we are great people. I have said many times that the shooting is what brought me to the sport but the people kept me in the sport.
I remember the incident WPT is referring about at the Spring Grand. My shooting partner and I was shooting on the trap next to this incident. Both of us told Bill what we seen and herd. And Bill did handle the problem very well.
Theres a very simple fix to this, pay a person who is qualified for the task and is an adult. Just charge more per round, now you can have an adult do the job and no one will feed them crap.
I shot with an elderly gentleman at the MT state shoot and yes, I hope I can still shoot at that age and am proud of this group of shooters for sticking with it, BUT, the guy yelled at the trap help if they stood together under the umbrella, had to sit at least 15 minutes between traps, and got really grumpy when he missed a few birds. I am not that competitive, but it was distracting and kind of messed with your head a little. If I had been the 'kids' he yelled at, I would have told him to stick it and walked away, but the one boy just said he was trying to stay in the shade and let it go. If the trap help is goofing off that is one thing, but for the most part, they do a good job and we probably don't tell them that enough.
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